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Student Life

Raising trans awareness on campus

The trans awareness workshop took place at Concordia’s Centre for Gender Advocacy on Sept. 20, as part of QPRIG’s “Disorientation Week” Photo by Ana Hernandez

A workshop hosted by QPIRG dedicated to trans terminology and acceptance

A trans awareness workshop, organized as part of the Quebec Public Interest Group’s (QPIRG) “Disorientation Week,” took place on Sep. 20 for students and other individuals interested in gaining more knowledge on issues surrounding today’s transgender population.

Gabrielle Bouchard, peer support and trans advocacy coordinator for Concordia’s Centre for Gender Advocacy, hosted the workshop and introduced the participants to the vast world of transgender identity.

Transgender is a term used to describe a male or a female who identifies with a gender that does not correspond with the gender they were assigned at birth, she said.  Bouchard added that the prefix trans- means “from one thing to another.”  In the case of “transgender,” it would mean from one gender to another.  As for the difference between transgender and transsexual, Bouchard explained that transsexual is a term that was first invented by medical practitioners to identify trans-individuals who had undergone a sex reassignment surgery or other medical interventions, such as hormonal replacement therapy.  

Bouchard also touched on the misconceptions that exist for transgender individuals. According to Bouchard, today, many experts and medical professionals still believe that transgender people suffer from a mental illness and that “you need to be cured from it.” She provided the example of certain medical professionals at the Montreal General Hospital who still participate in “conversion therapy.” She explained that these professionals believe these “therapies” are the best solution to “cure” transgender individuals.  

Bouchard said she hopes the next step in the trans conversation would be to ban “conversion therapy” for trans patients. She highlighted the importance of education and understanding since there are still people who express transphobic beliefs.

Photo by Ana Hernandez

“The trans 101 workshop is hugely important because we do have trans students here at Concordia. [The Centre for Gender Advocacy] is a queer magnet for students who come to Concordia … they might have a better [chance of] acceptance for who they are than in other spaces. By giving this workshop, we are giving safer spaces for students who are part of marginalized communities,” said Bouchard.

Bouchard mentioned that not all individuals who come to the Centre for Gender Advocacy are students—many non-students who are also part of the trans community come to the centre to seek help.

Bouchard emphasized the importance of respecting a person’s chosen name and pronoun as part of their identity. “Don’t presume gender [and] don’t be a passive bystander when you see transphobic stuff around campus. Be the voice of these identities,” she said. Respecting someone’s identity is the foundation to accepting trans people. If someone prefers to be called by a different name or pronoun, Bouchard said it is important to support them. “That is the one thing that is always denied for trans people. Just respect that and you will do a world of difference.”

If you are a transgender or non-binary individual looking for support, feel free to contact the Centre for Gender Advocacy, located at 2110 MacKay street near Concordia’s downtown campus, or Queer Concordia, located at 2020 MacKay street.

 

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Student Life

Sometimes you just need a handy helpr

Founders Julien Nolin (left), Michael Hasenfratz (right) Photo by Danielle Gasher

A new Montreal-based app is modernizing traditional tutoring

Julien Nolin, Michael Hasenfratz, and Emmanuel Cohen all agree that, oftentimes, the best and most convenient help for your homework comes from a quick chat, or a few messages back and forth with friends.

This was the vision that Nolin, 28, Hasenfratz, 29, and Cohen, 29, had when they created the mobile tutoring app, Helpr.

Taking into consideration today’s digital world, and extensive research they’ve conducted, the three founders, two of which are Concordia graduates, set out to create a modernized tutoring experience that reflected what they believed students actually needed and wanted. They came up with the idea for Helpr—an app that lets you be both a tutor and a student, depending on your strengths and weaknesses in school.

To register for the app, the user must prove their student status before choosing their school from the five schools available. The app launched at Concordia on Monday, Sept. 19. From there, if a student wants to be a “helpr” for a class, they must upload a screenshot of their school transcript, or take a picture of it with the app. A student generally has to have received an A- in the course they want to be a tutor for.

Students using the app have a few options of tutoring help to choose from: once they have found a “helpr” by searching the name or code for their course, students can either start a private chat with the “helpr” or, if they prefer, they can send out an invitation to do a video chat. If the “helpr” accepts the request from the app, the tutoring video session begins.

The last tutoring help option on the app is on the Q&A section. This part of the app features a “newsfeed” similar to that of Facebook, where students post questions about certain classes and other students can answer.  Students can “vote” for the best answer, and the one with the most votes becomes the “best” answer— a concept similar to Yahoo Answers. “So it’s kind of like crowd-sourcing knowledge within your school,” said Hasenfratz.  While the “best” answers are voted for by students, and not necessarily validated, it works as a guidance tool, to get fellow students on the right track.  

Another option the app offers is the one that most closely resembles a traditional tutoring session. The “live” session is when a “helpr” meets in-person with a student. To set up a meeting, either the “helpr” or the student chooses a time, date and public location through the app, and the other must approve it. Upon meeting, the “helpr” starts the session in the app and the student must then approve it. The same goes for when the session ends. This way, no one gets overcharged or underpaid. The video sessions and the live sessions are the only two features of the app that require payment. The base rate for a session is $2.50, and then 35 cents per minute.

During the summer of 2015, the three co-founders surveyed over 400 McGill students as part of their research. Before engineering the app, they wanted to be sure their vision matched the needs and vision of the students.

“We built it originally in the way we thought students were going to use it,” said Hasenfratz. “Then we watched how people were actually using it at McGill, and we re-engineered the app to be customized for the way people actually want it.” The first version of the app only included the option of in-person sessions, but the Helpr team changed that based on McGill students requesting more kinds of in-app options.

Screenshot courtesy of Danielle Gasher

Helpr had its beta launch at McGill in January 2016, to test the grounds and see how students reacted and adapted to the app.

The app is now available at five universities— Concordia, McGill, Université de Montréal, UQAM and Université de Laval. The app officially launched at Concordia on Monday, Sept. 19.

Nolin stressed the fact that this kind of tutoring service permits students to help other students not only with school, but financially as well. “Instead of paying a tutor, why not pay another student and let another student benefit from it?” Nolin and Hasenfratz said they felt this type of resource was lacking when they were students.

“When I was a student, I used to have to travel for an hour to go work in a bar to get paid twelve bucks an hour,” said Nolin. “Had I known this kind of platform was available, I could have been in the library waiting for other students who need help [with school], or walking up to students to help them.”

For now the Helpr team is a team of six, consisting of Nolin, Hasenfratz, Cohen, as well as three developers—an android developer, a web developer and a design developer, in charge for the app’s design and layout.

Hasenfratz said the app gives personalized help to students by peers from the same field of study.  “A lot of the questions teachers get are repeated over and over by different students who don’t know they’re asking the same questions,” said Hasenfratz. “This [app] consolidates everything into one place, so that before students post that question, they can easily just see what questions other people are posting about that course.”

With Helpr Concordia now officially launched, Helpr is actively recruiting students to join the team by becoming “helprs” or brand ambassadors.

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Student Life

Learning the language of university finances

Graphic by Thom Bell

The CAUT releases a new guide to help decode university budgets and financial statements

The Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) released a financial guide to facilitate the reading of post-secondary institutions’ financial statements and budgets.

The 27-page guide, which was made available on Sept. 8, was written by University of Manitoba accounting professors Janet and Cameron Morrill.  According to the association’s website, the document is a step-by-step guide with the goal to assist academic staff in identifying and understanding the revenues, including types of funding, coming into post-secondary institutions.

The CAUT is a professional association that was formed in 1951 with the purpose of advocating for its members and academic freedom. Today, the association represents 68,000 teachers, researchers, librarians and other academic staff across the country.

Courtesy of The Canadian Association of University Teachers

David Robinson, CAUT’s director, believes the guide can benefit everyone. “I believe it’s useful for anybody who wants to know what the true financial status of an institution is,” he said in an interview with The Concordian. “So when institutions are saying: ‘We have to raise tuition fees because we’re out of money,’ here’s a way that you can interrogate that. It might be true, it might not be true,” said Robinson.

According to the guide, institutions get their money mainly from provincial governments, tuition fees and private donors. Professors Morrill and Morrill explained their approach to analyzing university and college financial statements is to identify the amounts and origin of the resources available to universities, in order to determine what kind of additional support for academic teaching and research the institutions’ revenues can provide.

Essentially, the guide not only makes reading financial statements easier, but it also ensures that the reader can begin to comprehend universities’ budget-cutting strategies to further analyze or question these strategies.

In a message posted on Concordia’s website on June 29, Concordia President Alan Shepard explained that the university’s revenues from grants and tuitions fees for the 2016-17 year weren’t enough to see a significant lowering of the deficit.

As a strategy to diminish the university’s $6.3 million deficit, this year’s budget included two different Voluntary Retirement Programs—one for full-time faculty, and one for staff members. These buyout programs, whereby professors are offered a certain amount of money to retire early, are a way to reduce university expenses by spending less on tenured, full-time professors.

Academic institutions’ financial statements contain a lot of columns, rows, and most of all, a lot of big numbers. Many of these numbers have been on the rise over the past decade.  According to a Canadian Federation of Students statistic cited in a 2015 CBC article, during the 1960s and 1970s, governments covered more than 90 per cent of costs for post-secondary institutions. By 2013, that figure was down to 57 per cent. According to Statistics Canada, public funding is lowering, and therefore, being dramatically replaced by rising tuition fees.

According to Statistics Canada, for the 2014-15 year, total expenditures were approximately $560 million higher than the previous year. Revenues from tuition fees was close to $500 million higher than the previous year. The total revenues of all Canadian colleges and universities for the 2014-15 year were close to $36 billion, a big jump up from $35 billion, the year before. According to Morrill and Morrill, many institutions claim to be in bad financial situations, but the numbers tend to make it seem otherwise.

The numbers are there, the numbers are big, and they can be confusing. What exactly does the “other fees” row in the financial statements refer to? And why is it only ever on the rise, whereas Health Canada revenues and “miscellaneous” revenues fluctuate from year to year? These are the kinds of questions that the guide sets out to answer, or at least, to clarify. “We try to establish whether the institution has unexpended resources that it could use to improve employee compensation and the sustainability of those resources,” explain Morrill and Morrill in the guide.

Concordia’s director of media relations, Chris Mota, says Concordia fully supports this guide, and what it is trying to accomplish.  “Financial literacy is something Concordia puts high priority on,” she told The Concordian. Mota said this kind of guide is useful for everyone, but student associations and the student press can especially benefit from it, as they are often faced with the task of dissecting university budgets and numbers.  “You can’t be an expert on everything, and universities have their own language,” Mota added.

The CAUT guide, and the questions it sets out to answer, are all part of the larger issue of academic institutions’ spending. While the CAUT guide cannot directly address the larger issue of where money should be going, it can provide information to help answer the crucial questions of where the money is going, and whether or not institutions are hiding anything in their cryptic rows of numbers and monetary amounts.

“It’s important for institutions to be transparent in their financial dealings. We think this [guide] provides an interesting way and a helpful guide to allow [CAUT] members, but also students and the general public, to get a clearer sense of the actual state of the university and college finances,” Robinson said.

Graphic by Thom Bell

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Student Life

The steps to standing up to sexual violence

Photo by Andrej Ivanov

Concordia’s Sexual Assault Resource Centre hosted a workshop on bystander intervention

Concordia’s Sexual Assault Resource Centre hosted a bystander intervention workshop for students as part of Concordia’s CSU Wellness Day on Sept. 15. The purpose of the workshop was to increase safety on campus and provide support for survivors of sexual assault.

Jennifer Drummond, coordinator of the Sexual Assault Resource Center, led the workshop. She explained that sexual violence is an umbrella term that includes sexual abuse, sexual assault and sexual harassment. She defined sexual assault as involving non-consensual sexual contact such as kissing or penetration, while sexual harassment constitutes unwanted looks, comments or jokes of a sexual nature.

Drummond said “bystander intervention” is when a person sees a potentially dangerous-looking situation and speaks up about someone else’s language or behaviour, whether it is inappropriate, hurtful, abusive or dangerous.  “It’s about preventing situations from escalating to sexual violence. We teach people how to intervene and to become active bystanders. It helps to shift the culture to one of consent and respect,” she said.

Drummond said it is important to have these kinds of workshops because sexual violence is all too common. According to Statistics Canada, one in four women will experience some form of sexual violence during their lifetime—the most vulnerable period being between the ages of 18 and 24. In addition, one in six men will face sexual violence, but it is usually more common during childhood.

Drummond said that there are many reasons why a bystander would not want to intervene, including due to the “bystander effect.”

“[The bystander effect] is a phenomenon [where] the more bystanders are witnessing a violent situation, the less likely … anyone will do anything because everyone thinks that someone else will intervene and no one does,” Drummond explained.

Many bystanders tend to feel awkward about intervening or think that it’s none of their business, but it is better to be safe than sorry, Drummond said. Another barrier for intervention is safety. Drummond said she does not encourage people to intervene if it would put their own safety at risk. In such cases, Drummond suggested getting support from friends, other bystanders or even the police.

Photo by Andrej Ivanov

Drummond also explained the four “D”s of intervention strategies, which are crucial actions for every bystander think about before taking action. The fours “D”s are distract, direct, delegate and delay. The first “D” is about distracting the victim or the attacker with an irrelevant question. This takes the victim of the harassment away from the situation, allowing them to find an escape route. “Direct” intervention is about directly addressing the situation and calling out the attacker’s inappropriate behaviour. The “delegate” method involves getting immediate help from other people such as friends, other bystanders or an authoritative figure to intervene in the situation. “Delaying” works as a last resort. If for some reason or other, a friend insists she or he doesn’t need help, or is comfortable with the person or people accompanying them, then you can delay your intervention to the next day. You basically don’t want to force your help on, but you want to check in with the victim as soon as possible.

The Sexual Assault Resource Centre also offers other workshops, trainings and presentations about consent and bystander intervention.

If you are a victim of sexual violence, please contact the toll-free helpline for victims: 1-888-933-9007, or visit Concordia University’s Sexual Assault Resource Centre located at the Sir George Williams Campus in room GM-300.27.

For immediate danger on campus, you can reach security at 514-848-3717.

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Student Life

Black, big, beautiful: a “Real Talk” about body-shaming

Photo by Danielle Gasher

DESTA hosted a talk about the preconceived notions surrounding overweight black women

A discussion about the stereotypes and negative connotations associated with overweight black women, and the media’s effect on the way society perceives black women’s bodies took place at last week’s DESTA Black Youth Network “Real Talk” session.

DESTA, an acronym for “Dare Every Soul To Achieve”, is a non-profit, community-based organization that serves marginalized and at-risk youth, aged 18 to 25 in Montreal. According to DESTA’s website, the organization’s mission is to mentor these youths in the areas of education, health, personal development and employment through activities, workshops and mentor support.

Personal accounts, understanding and attentive ears filled the room in DESTA’s basement on Sept. 14.  Sitting in front of a half-moon-shaped crowd of about 30 attendees, 22-year-old LaSalle college fashion marketing student Nyoka Hunter led her first “Real Talk” discussion entitled “Fat Black Women: How We Do Them Wrong.”

The “Real Talk” monthly discussions are part of a new series DESTA has launched.  The discussions are open to the public, with the goal of providing a learning centre, and a welcoming environment to address different social issues affecting Montreal’s marginalized youth. The discussion sessions don’t feature any experts or specialists, but instead have only one facilitator—someone to guide the talk, open the floor for discussion, and to present the matter in a researched, but personal way.

The success of DESTA’s “Real Talk” on cultural appropriation inspired Hunter to create this event. “I heard a lot of different perspectives surrounding the topic, and that motivated me to want to do this event based on fat black women and how they are perceived in the media, [by] their families, friends, just in general,” she said.

Hunter began the discussion by talking about how the media portrays overweight black women. She addressed black women’s place in Hollywood, and the types of acting roles that leaner black women might get, in comparison to overweight black women.

According to a Vice News article released on Sept. 7, a new University of California study found that out of 35,205 characters from the 800 films studied between 2007 and 2015, only 31.5 per cent of speaking characters were female, and only 26.3 per cent of the total amount of characters were racial minorities.

Not only are black women underrepresented on the big screen, but like other minority groups in the area, they are also not necessarily being well represented.

In a 2013 USA TODAY article, journalist Arienne Thompson discussed how the roles available for black women in Hollywood still lack depth. In the article, interview subject Jubba Seyyid, the senior director of programming of TV One, a black-oriented cable network, said the roles available are one-dimensional. She explained how black women are always depicted as aggressive and “bitchy,” creating characters that lack balance.

Hunter also talked about the fashion industry and “fatphobia,” as well as the so-called “plus-sized models” of the industry. “The industry advertises these average-sized girls as being ‘acceptable fat,’” said Hunter. However, she said body-loving and feminist social media personalities and activists such as Ashleigh Shackelford and Mercedes Brissett are shedding light on black women and weight. Hunter said it is important to raise new questions and discuss different perspectives to keep the dialogue rolling.

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Student Life

“Treating” it right: a conversation about water

Attendees were welcome to take a pamphlet for the fall schedule of “University of the streets café’s events Photo by Joshua De Costa

The first lab in the University of the Streets’ conversation series took place on Sept. 3

Art Hives and University of the Streets Café, two separate Montreal community organizations, came together on Sept. 3 at the NDG Art Hive to hold their public conversational lab, which discussed the way society uses and treats its bodies of water, while tying art-making into the event.

Tricia Toso, the event moderator, said the labs were being held to encourage the community to come out together and get more involved in issues pertaining to arts and science. The lab appeared to do just that.

In the middle of Notre Dame de Grâce Park, children and parents, alongside other members of the community, gathered under a clear blue sky to take part in the premiere event.

Toso began the lab by inviting attendees to participate in arts and crafts on a nearby table.  Many of the children at the event crowded the table, which was covered with pieces of coloured chalk, paint palettes, scissors, brushes, glitter and glue.

Art pieces hang to dry at the NDG art hive
Photo by Joshua De Costa

Shortly after, Supriya Tandan began the first of two scheduled presentations. Tandan, an aquatic ecologist working at a law start-up firm, spoke about Montreal’s difficult decision to dump raw sewage into the St. Lawrence River last November.

She explained how the consulted scientists justified giving the go-ahead to dump the sewage—they believed that since the river was much larger than the amount of sewage, dumping it wouldn’t affect the quality of the drinking water.

“The scientists said ‘dilution is the solution to pollution,’” Tandan said.

The decision had its pros and cons, however.

“We had to decide between dumping the sewage in the river or letting it run into the water treatment facility which could have affected the whole municipality.”

Jailson Lima, who holds a PhD in inorganic chemistry, also gave a presentation. Lima recalled a time when he took his students to Pointe-aux-Trembles to visit the Jean-R. Marcotte plant, a primary water treatment facility on the eastern tip of Montreal.

“You see a huge swimming pool of greyish water, and the guy says: ‘Let’s add chlorine to it and dump it straight back into the river,’ and the kids are shocked and they ask: ‘Why? Why don’t we treat it further?’”

Aquatic ecologist Supriya Tandan contributing a little art of her own
Photo by Joshua De Costa

Lima used the city of Calgary and one of its rivers as an example. Since the river is much smaller, the effect of dumping untreated sewage in it is much greater. Therefore, the city of Calgary must use tertiary water treatment plants to treat their sewage.

“It’s not the poison that kills you, it’s the dose,” said Lima as he defended dilution as the solution—but he said while dilution works most of the time, it doesn’t work every time. Even if diluted, there are some impurities in water that can cause serious problems for the environment, he said. “Today in the United States, hormones in the water are creating an imbalance between the number of male and female fish.”

Lima then gave attendees tips on how they could save water.  He said everyone should reconsider how they eat or what they buy because every piece of food or type of product has its own “water footprint.”

Just as a carbon footprint shows how much carbon is used to make a certain product, a “water footprint” is the amount of freshwater that the process requires.  For example, it takes just under 7,000 liters of water—or about a 15-hour long shower—to produce one pound of bovine meat, according to a 2010 study published by the UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education.

“The way we are consuming is using a lot of water,” Lima said. “This cannot go on forever.”

Canada has a history of using a lot of water. In 2009, The National Post reported that Canada ranked second only to the United States in the developed world in liters of water used per person each day.

Since then, however, newer reports show that Canada’s water usage has slightly improved. In 2016, The Conference Board of Canada gave Canada a “B” score for “water withdrawals”—the total volume of water removed from a body of water—ranking the country 10 out of 15 other peer countries.  Three years prior, on the same evaluation scale, Canada was ranked 15 out of 16 peer countries.

Saturday’s discussion also showed how the relationship between a consumerist society and bodies of water can be complicated.

Toso said after the discussion: “There are few places where people can come and have an open discussion about their [water] usage, and get access to a scientist [like Lima].”

Saturday’s conversational lab was the first in the “UrbanBodies series.” The next lab, called “Earth – Herself,” will discuss how the quality of soil affects urban gardening and health.

The lab will be held on Sept. 20 at St-Henri Hive, 4525 Rue Saint-Jacqueson.

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Student Life

A taste and a sip of Gaspésie in Montreal

Pit Caribou's beer sample platter Photo by Daniel Slapcoff

Pub Pit Caribou tests the waters in Montreal, opening its doors on Rachel E street

Ever had seaweed chips with rye beer? In Percé, where Pub Pit Caribou originated, this combo is a common snack for many pub-goers. Well-rooted in the Gaspésie community since 2007, the Pub Pit Caribou microbrewery finds passion in offering a unique experience with every beer they craft.

Brewed in Anse-à-Beaufils, a small village situated within the bigger town of Percé, QC, their beer comes in five regular varieties: golden ale, amber ale, white wheat beer, porter and Indian pale ale (IPA). The brewery also crafts a variety of limited edition series, like the Tennessee series, which consists of different beers that are aged in Tenessee whiskey barrels.

Most of the beer selection that the microbrewery offers has been available in some bars and speciality stores in Montreal for quite some time. However, in mid-May, Pub Pit Caribou opened its doors in Montreal in the Plateau. The signature “Pit Caribou” logo that Montrealers have come to know from their bottle labels now hangs on a sign on the corner of Rachel and Mentana, just a block away from the popular poutine joint, La Banquise.

Smoked salmon, seaweed chips and beer bread.
Photo by Daniel Slapcoff

Pub Pit Caribou’s menu comes in the form of a wrinkled piece of paper stapled to a wooden plank that features not only their beer menu and specialty Gaspésien snacks, but also the origins and stories behind their beers. The knowledgeable staff guides you through the beers currently available and even suggests some favourites, allowing you to explore the different flavours Gaspésie has to offer. The staff’s care and attention communicates their passion for well-crafted beers and local products.

The regular beers are all enjoyable, especially the award-winning Blanche de Pratto, a white wheat beer. The brew has hints of coriander and citrus, rendering it both sweet and slightly spicy. The rye pale ale, a limited edition seasonal beer currently being offered, is a little bit more unique. With a dry touch to it, the beer resembles an IPA because of the strong hop presence.

The pub sits on the corner of Rachel E and Mentana street, on the Plateau
Photo by Daniel Slapcoff

The seaweed chips from Cap-au-Renard offer a cool alternative to regular chips – that is, if you enjoy seafood. These chips really taste like, well…the ocean. If kelp isn’t your thing, the smoked salmon from the Fumoir Monsieur Émile in Percé has just the right smoke-to-fish ratio and tastes great after a sip of the rye beer.

If your beer connoisseur friend is dying to drag you to Pub Pit Caribou but you despise beer, the pub offers a surprisingly extensive list of different spirits and cocktails. Their barley wine even won a medal at the Canadian Brewing Awards in 2014, according to the microbrewery’s website. The pub’s current special seasonal cocktail is made with vodka and organic blueberry-lavender kombucha from New-Richmond. It has the thirst-quenching qualities of kombucha that many know and love, but with alcohol. Designated drivers will also be satisfied with the menu, as Pub Pit Caribou offers many non-alcoholic choices, including a hop tea.

Pit Caribou, 951 Rue Rachel E, is open everyday from 2 p.m. to 3 a.m.

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Student Life

Three students, one simple vision

Imran Wasaralli (left), Alex Beaupre (middle) and Verain Kapoor (right) are the men behind Infinity Designs. Photos courtesy of Infinity Designs

Start-up company, Infinity Designs provides basic fashion essentials for a good cause

Two freshmen at Concordia and a student from Syracuse University are the brains behind Infinity Designs, a start-up company that aims to make a difference by providing people with simple fashion essentials, all while donating to a good cause.

The start-up company currently sells two products: a beaded bracelet and a sleek nero water bottle. Ten per cent of all of their profits go to water.org, an organization that provides water for people in countries such as Kenya, Bangladesh and the Philippines.

“When we shop, it’s hard to find a good brand that focuses on quality, fitting and pricing so we decided to take things into our own hands,” said 21-year-old co-founder, Imran Wasaralli. “We also have a strong desire to promote the idea that other businesses can help by donating to charitable organizations.”

Wasaralli and co-founder Verain Kapoor, 21, are both studying finance at Concordia. The third co-founder, Alex Beaupre, 20, is pursuing a degree in marketing at Syracuse University. The three men met at John Abbott College, where they were all pursuing a diploma in business administration. Realizing they shared a passion for fashion and making a difference, they decided to team up and create Infinity Designs, which launched on Aug. 4.

For Wasaralli, it was important to give back to a charity that provides people with basic necessities such as water.  “Water is a daily essential for humans to survive, and knowing that there are millions of people out there that currently don’t have access to safe and clean water is very upsetting,” said Wasaralli.

The company’s logo, as well as the name “Infinity Designs” are all inspired by the mission of the three students. According to Wasaralli, the “polygonal infinity sign” logo is simple so it can easily fit on any of their products, while the emphasis on the colour blue is to signify the contributions to water.org. Wasaralli said that the company is called “Infinity Designs” because the ultimate goal is to provide an “infinite” water supply to those in need.

Photo Infinity Designs Instagram: Infinity Designs gives 10 per cent of its profits to water.org.

To complement the launch of the brand, the three students created a social media marketing campaign called “MyID,” which stands for “My Infinity Designs.” The concept is simple: anybody can take a picture of themselves wearing an Infinity Designs product and use the hashtag “MyID” to spread the word.  “Seeing as though our customers are the ones helping us make a difference in this world by making a purchase, we felt as though the hashtag ‘MyID’ would create a personal connection to Infinity Designs and make them feel [like] an influential part of the brand,” said Kapoor.  “Our end goal through our online marketing is to create a brand that people can trust and are proud of,” added Beaupre.

The company is currently being run out of Kapoor’s basement, which has been turned into a makeshift warehouse. Kapoor and Wasaralli can often be found driving around the West Island, making their own deliveries to people who are close by.  The three men believe it is important to create these personal connections with their customers, and that it is something they will continue to put emphasis on as they expand their brand.

“We want to continue to develop and launch new accessories that our customers are proud to wear,” said Beaupre. “We want to do this while always sticking to our main focus and goal of helping others in need.”

Check the brand out on their website.

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Student Life

Keeping it sultry with Lady Josephine

Burlesque dance class Photo by Eloise Huston

An open house, the burlesque way: chair stripteases, inner sexiness and tease 101

On Aug. 29, L’Académie Arabesque Burlesque invited newcomers to discover, learn and practice burlesque performance.

Approximately 20 guests, comprised mostly of women, attended the event at the Wiggle Room, a go-to spot for Burlesque nights on Boulevard Saint-Laurent. The event took place in a large, dimly lit room that serves as a bar when classes aren’t taking place. Music played, and high-key lighting drew the eye to the room’s pièce de résistance: the stage. Dark leather couches, brick walls, framed pictures of dancers and large, dramatic curtains gave the space a vintage feel.

Lady Josephine is one of the founders of L’Académie Arabesque Burlesque, and was one of the hosts of the open house. She said her vision for the school started when she participated in workshops with her mentor, BonBon Bombay, in early 2015.

“This is our second year teaching here at the Wiggle Room,” she said. “It started out with workshops, and now I’m the director. There are also other teachers who give classes, workshops and coaching.”

The two-hour evening session was divided into five categories: tease 101, chair striptease, burlesque fitness, theatre exercises and dance choreography. Lady Josephine was accompanied at this event by Jessica Rae, another teacher at the school.

The evening started off with Lady Josephine trying to bring out participants’ inner sexiness. The guests formed a circle, closed their eyes and had to imagine themselves doing something “sexy” in public. They then had to perform that scenario for another guest.

When asked to define the word burlesque and what it meant to her, Lady Josephine described it as a “theatrical striptease”.

“[Burlesque is] stripping, but funnier—a celebration of nudity and sex as two of life’s best things—and a cry for revolution dressed up in a pretty costume,” said Lady Josephine.

Burlesque bachelorette party Photo by Eloise Huston.

Lady Josephine demonstrated striptease on a chair. Each individual chose to play either the submissive character, which involved sitting on the chair and spreading their legs open, or the dominant character, which involved turning the chair around and sitting. For the last two parts of the evening, Rae also showed participants’ the theatre’s place in a burlesque performance, and how dance and striptease are equally crucial to the performance.

At Arabesque Burlesque, Josephine and the other teachers teach the American burlesque style, which is very theatrical, comedic and costume-oriented. Most of the school’s students are women, but Lady Josephine said Arabesque Burlesque also attracts many men. She explained that it is a way for them to embrace their sensuality.

Lady Josephine encourages anyone interested to come visit one of the three open houses that happen every year, or to try out a few classes. Burlesque, she said, attracts people for a variety of reasons.

“People are either looking for a way to discover self-confidence and explore the sensual side of life, or they’re looking for a fun way to use their body on stage,” she said.

For more information on upcoming open houses and workshops, visit their website.

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Student Life

“Read any good books this summer?”

The Nest by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney Press

Zombie apocalypses, dysfunctional families, some horror and a really old guy

World War Z- Max Brooks

World War Z, written by Max Brooks, documents the events of “The Crisis,” a virus outbreak that kills victims and then reanimates them as destructive and murderous zombies.  What makes this book so unique is the style in which it is written.  Brooks divides the book into sections, starting with the warning signs of the outbreak and ending with the rebuilding the world as it becomes livable again. Brooks shows how the world and different countries handle themselves in crisis, how people fight back, how they survive and move forward.  The entire book is told through  interviews conducted by a nameless narrator, as survivors of “The Crisis” from all over the world recollect their personal experiences. The stories told are by different people, from all around the world and all walks of life. No two stories are the same. It is a fascinating read that will leave you uncomfortable, emotional and wondering what you would do if zombies took over the planet.

By Rebecca Luger

 

The Nest- Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney

Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney’s debut novel, “The Nest,” tells the story of a wealthy and dysfunctional New York family. The story follows the four Plumb siblings as they anxiously wait to receive their inheritance, referred to as “the nest”.  The Plumb family consists of Leo Plumb, the former millionaire playboy whose upcoming divorce and list of legal woes has him down to his last dollar; Jack Plumb, who is married to a successful New York lawyer, but can’t seem to become successful through any of his own financial investments; Melody Plumb, who devotes her life to her twin daughters and ensures that they are received as the wealthy socialites she wishes them to be; and Beatrice Plumb, the once-successful author-turned-shut-in. Together, these siblings turn lying into an art. You root for them, yet are repulsed and embarrassed by many of their decisions.

By Krystal Carty

 

Lisey’s Story- Stephen King

This book is the perfect blend of horror, unexpected romance, family tension and other worldly fantasies that only Stephen King could conjure up. The story follows a widow and her struggle to finally put her late husband’s memory to rest. Her journey takes her through intense physical and mental strain. The book doesn’t focus just on the horror side of the story, or on the more personal family side of it—both elements balanced well. Drawing from stories of the past to decorate and enhance the intensity of the present, King solidifies Lisey’s Story as one of his most captivating books I’ve yet read. King should also be praised for flawlessly sewing a fantasy world into the story in a way that, surprisingly, seems effortless. I’d highly recommend this book as one of King’s crowned jewels.

By Sarah Jesmer

 

The 100-Year-Old Man Who Jumped Out the Window and Disappeared- Jonas Jonasson

This book was a bit more of a drag than the title spells out, but a pleasant read all the same. The main storyline of the 100-year-old man, Allan, is interesting enough. It’s a well-written, detailed and fast-paced adventure that features running from gang members and accidentally becoming a wanted fugitive. The story captivates readers by switching back and forth between the present and the past to tell the story of Allan’s life, and how he ends up witnessing historically significant events seemingly by accident. This book is good reading material to break out on the subway when you need a bit of a distraction.

By Sarah Jesmer

 

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Student Life

The app that could solve your parking struggles

Amin Dada, left, Aubrey Hansen-Barkun, right. Photo by Danielle Gasher

Montrealers can now rent out their vacant private parking spots

Thanks to a cousin from the South Shore, a well-situated apartment and a productive 14-hour flight, Amin Dada may have created a permanent solution to a problem plaguing modern-day life: parking.

A conversation about the struggles of parking in a big city usually turns around in the same circles as the cars looking for parking. Dada, a self-described “OCD problem-solver,” needed to fix the problem once he got acquainted to it. The 30-year-old Concordia graduate is the founder of City Parking, a mobile app that lets driveway and parking spot owners rent out their spots when they are not being used.

Dada got a taste of what the app would be like before even getting the idea for City Parking. In late 2012, he started lending his parking spot to a cousin who drove downtown during the week to get to Concordia. Dada—who lived right behind Montreal’s Bell Centre at the time, and had a parking spot but no car—was happy to do so. He started offering up his spot to more of his friends and family, until it became quite the annoyance.

“I was a virtual lot attendant taking reservations through calls and texts at work,” said Dada with a laugh.  The situation got Dada thinking about a permanent solution to people’s parking woes. On a long flight in December 2013, Dada wrote up his business plan for the idea. The app went live on July 20, 2016.

The app is pretty straight-forward.  Upon downloading the app, the user must simply sign up.  Users get an hour of free parking the first time they use the app. After the free trial, a driver can reserve or book a spot anytime, anywhere, in advance or at the last minute, for a flat rate of $2 an hour.  Dada explained that if a car is parked in the spot upon arrival, the driver can either call the owner using the app, or select the “report problem” setting in the app—which calls the City Parking team directly. From there, the team leaps into action and finds the next closest spot for the driver, and gives them 30 minutes free.

While the concept of the app may sound similar to the Uber app in terms of average people offering a car service, nothing makes Dada and his team cringe more than being compared to the company. While City Parking is decluttering the streets, and promoting public transport by suggesting spots close to bus stops and metro stations, Dada said, Uber is doing the opposite.

Screenshot of City Parking. Courtesy of Danielle Gasher.

The app has not been heavily advertised or shared with the media because the team wanted to give it a test-run with friends, family and people who stumbled upon it. City Parking currently has over 100 users and 20 parking spots. The official launch of the app will take place in late September—an exact date has not been set yet.

The City Parking team is still small, but hard at work and attracting big names. The team. All Concordia graduates, is composed of five employees, plus two investors, and two advisors—including one from Google. The team is also receiving support from the city, the details of which Dada is not yet able to disclose.

Concordia student Aubrey Hansen-Barkun joined the team last winter. The 23-year-old marketing student was looking for a project to get involved with—a start-up worthwhile.  He found Dada’s ad on Indeed and the two met up.

“First time we spoke, I was like ‘wow, this is an incredibly smart guy, and this is definitely something I want to be a part of,” said Hansen-Barkun, who is now the start-up’s marketing analyst.

The pair’s passion for the project is apparent in the amount of research they have conducted, and in the focused and energetic way they speak about their app.  Dada and his team have a global vision for the start-up.

“Parking lots are being taken over by condos—meters cannot be expanded. Where will you find parking when your city grows? If we can solve parking [problems] for Montreal, we can solve it for other cities as well,” Dada said.

On top of decongesting the streets, Dada explained, solving the city’s parking problems has the power to lower carbon emissions caused by the “cruising time” that cars take when looking for parking. A 2006 study on parking, conducted by UCLA professor Donald C. Shoup, found that drivers in a 15-block district in Los Angeles “cruised” for 950,000 miles, produced 730 tons of carbon dioxide and used 47,000 gallons of gas just searching for parking. While gas station lots are sitting empty all day, and townhouse driveways are generally vacant between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., cars are polluting the air as they drive aimlessly around, looking for something they may never find, said Dada.

In the large and bright conference room of the team’s office space, Dada and Hasen-Barken sit with their computers, a couple of notepads and a cardboard coffee cup— the pair looks small, hopeful and powerful all at once—just like their app does in the ever-growing, digital-sharing economy.

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Student Life

Mastering the art of budgeting as a student

Graphic by Florence Yee.

Are you an Avoiding Ostrich, a Striding Peacock, a Stashing Crow, or a Wary Owl?

On Aug. 24, Concordia’s Financial Aid & Awards Office presented the first workshop in a series of four similar events dedicated to helping students find the budgeting system right for them.

The first “Budget to Your Values” workshop, which took place in the Guy de Maisonneuve building last Thursday, was hosted by Judy Lashley, a financial advisor working with the Financial Aid & Awards Office at Concordia.  The second workshop took place on Aug. 25, and the last two events of the series will take place on Aug. 30 and 31.

During the workshop, Lashley explained that budgeting is essential for students because it is a tool that helps in long-term saving.  “A budgeting plan is a roadmap that teaches you how to do things in your life so that you are able to plan for your future,” said Lashley to the room full of students.

According to Lashley, one of the main issues students face when making a budget is not knowing what they want to do with their money, or what they see as their long-term financial goals.  To shed light on this issue, Lashley used a variety of handouts and fun games to better translate her expertise on money and budgeting systems.

Lashley created an interactive presentation.  Each student was handed a workshop folder containing budgeting instructions, a personality quiz, a customized envelope, a workshop evaluation form and an information sheet for the Financial Aid department at Concordia.  Her presentation also included a quiz, entitled “How do You Relate to Money?” The quiz analyzed participants’ personality types and aimed to understand the relationship they have with their money.  The results were divided into four bird categories, aimed to represent different budgeting characteristics: The Avoiding Ostrich (avoidance), Striding Peacock (overspending), The Stashing Crow (workaholic), and the Wary Owl (vigilance and fear).

Lashley explained that a budget can be something as simple as a piece of paper where you write down the money that comes in, the money that goes out and the money you want to put aside.  She also said that one of the best ways for students to save money is by using the envelope budgeting system. This way, the whole money-spending and money-saving process is more tangible, and you can physically see your money being placed and being spent.  Using cards all the time can make you underestimate the amount you dish out, said Lashley.

The envelope system works by calculating an estimate of your monthly expenses, dividing your expenses into different categories and assigning an envelope to each category.  With these, you can either put the cash for the month in the envelope up front or, you can put money in the envelopes weekly.  For instance, if you put $50 in your food envelope at the beginning of the week, then $50 is all you are allowed to spend on food until the following week.

Lashley also said it’s important to be aware of emergency expenses that may come up. Emergency expenses can include needing to purchase new ink for a printer or replacing broken electronics.  Lashley explained that the key to budgeting and saving money is to know what your values are, and to make appropriate decisions based on them.  “If you figure out what you value, you can figure out how to save money and create a budget that will help you do the things you want to do,” she said.

For more information, visit the FAAO website.

Graphic by Florence Yee

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